


Winter is Coming (Out)

by newtypeshadow



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Aliens, Avengers Tower, Bucky Barnes & Winter Soldier are Different Personalities, Bucky Barnes's Metal Arm, Bucky and Winter like soft things, Canon Divergence - Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Domestic Avengers, First Kiss, Getting Together, M/M, Possessive Winter, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Tony Stark Is a Good Bro, Winter is secretly Bucky's alien Symbiote, mentioned surgery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-04-08
Packaged: 2020-01-06 15:11:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18390911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/newtypeshadow/pseuds/newtypeshadow
Summary: Officially: Winter is Bucky’s split personality, a byproduct of Hydra turning him into the Winter Soldier.Truthfully: Winter is an alien Symbiote Zola infested Bucky with, whose existence they've agreed must be kept secret fromeveryone.Unfortunately: Bucky and Winter both want Tony Stark, and Winter’s decided step one in getting him is telling Tony what Winter really is.Bucky is not on board with this plan.





	Winter is Coming (Out)

**Author's Note:**

> So guys. I love me the “Bucky Barnes & Winter Soldier are Different Personalities” tag something fierce. And then I saw the Venom movie. This fic is a product of that union.

When Bucky moves into Avengers Tower, where JARVIS watches and listens in every room but bedrooms and bathrooms unless permitted otherwise, keeping the fact that Hydra infested him with an alien parasite—his Symbiote, Winter, who can form blades and tendrils with his body, and has a penchant for enveloping Bucky like a suit and eating bad people when he’s hungry—is far easier said than done. Thankfully, no one questions his claim that Winter is a split personality that formed during Zola’s experimentation, and the Avengers get used to Bucky interrupting conversations with them to speak to the voice inside his head.

Steve grew up with Bucky, and Natasha trained with Winter, so they’ve got friends right off the bat when they move in, but no one else has met either of them, and almost everyone seems to be waiting for Bucky to snap, so it’s a relief when Tony Stark, their benefactor, seems determined to make both Bucky and Winter his friends. Tony talks and jokes with both of them, deliberately pushes their buttons the same way he does with Steve and his other friends, and never acts like Winter doesn’t exist just because he can’t hear him. When Winter interrupts Bucky’s conversations, Tony takes it in stride, and gives Bucky time to answer him aloud or in his head as if Tony’s got plenty of time to spare (he doesn’t). He asks their opinions on a variety of things, from coffee to movies to weapons to the relative plushness of couch blankets in the common room.

In short, Tony Stark is fascinating.

Tony’s gorgeous and smart and feels like the embodiment of Technology and The Future, and Bucky wants Tony like he hasn’t wanted anyone since he shipped out for World War II. Bucky’s desire is a new experience for Winter, but Winter likes the hormonal cocktail that floods their body around Tony, and he also enjoys Tony’s company, and so goes out of his way to ensure the three cross paths often. Winter’s offer to let Tony tinker with their metal arm is particularly inspired, and gets them an open invitation to Tony’s lab.

Things are mostly fine until Winter decides he wants Tony Stark to be _theirs_ , at which point he gets restless inside Bucky in a way that’s going to get them caught. Deliberately, because for Tony to be with them, he has to know Winter’s a Symbiote.

It all comes to a head when Tony removes Bucky’s metal arm and its casing. He’d cottoned onto the connection’s degradation when Bucky mentioned his shoulder was hurting, and concluded, “This shit is so old I’m surprised it isn’t poisoning you faster than your super serum can heal you. I can make you a new arm, Bucky bear—just say the word—but this one needs to come off. You’ll have to deal with just the one arm until it heals, but after that we can set up a less invasive connection and I’ll have a replacement arm ready for you.”

Bucky lets Tony and Dr. Helen Cho surgically un-house the metal from his bones so his body can heal. They do it in the Tower’s medical wing; Bucky trusts few places to keep him safe in such a vulnerable state.

After Dr. Cho leaves, Tony tells him, “Your shoulder’s gonna feel tender even with that synthetic skin graft, so take it easy. Even for you, it’ll take at least a week to heal everything.”

**No. Not for us _,_** Winter huffs in Bucky’s head, just before Bucky feels the ripple under his skin of Winter settling over his bones and muscle tissue, feels the painless tingle of Winter’s healing before the ripple recedes. Bucky feels a residual smugness from Winter as it does.

“Winter,” Bucky says warningly, “we had an agreement.”

Tony grins, as he always does when Bucky speaks to Winter around him. “Oh? What’s this agreement? Do you need a mediator?”

**Tell him to scan again,** Winter says testily.

“I’m not—no. I ain’t saying that.”

**We don’t need this ridiculous bandage, Bucky. Tell him to scan us and take it off. It restricts our movement.**

“C’mon, it ain’t that bad. ’S not like we’ll be fightin’ anytime soon anyway.”

**He thinks we are weak. We are not weak.**

“He doesn’t think that.”

“What don’t I think?” Tony asks, crossing his arms.

**Tell him we do not need a week. I have healed us.**

“Most people need months if not years, Winter. We can wait.”

Tony’s eyes narrow, far too shrewd for Bucky’s liking—but Winter is delighted. “What’s Winter trying to tell me, Bucky?”

“Nothing.”

**The truth.**

Bucky glares hard at the floor. Winter won’t let him bolt, but Bucky sure as hell won’t let Winter open his mouth to speak for him.

**We want him for us, so he needs to _know_ us. He will scan us again and he will see that we are strong enough to protect him, and _you_ will see we can trust him.**

“Winter—”

**Please.**

Bucky breath hitches. Winter never says please. When Bucky looks up at Tony, the man is leaning on the side of his hospital bed and watching Bucky like he’s an equation Tony hasn’t quite figured out how to balance. Bucky has been around Tony long enough now to recognize when he’s covering up feeling hurt—it’s a tightness around his eyes and the pull of his shoulders. Suddenly, Bucky feels like an asshole. So he gives in. “Goddammit,” he sighs. Then, louder, “JARVIS, can you stop recording for a minute?”

“Sir?” JARVIS inquires from the speakers unobtrusively littering the room.

“It’s fine, J,” Tony says, waving permission with his fingers as well. His eyes never leave Bucky’s face.

“Audiovisual recordings for this room disabled.”

“Thanks,” Bucky mumbles. God, if this is how he reacts to sharing how fast Winter heals him, how the fuck is he supposed to show Tony the way Winter ripples over his skin, what the Winter Soldier really looks like when they’re well fed and suited up and fighting all out?

Tony’s eyes watch him softly. His hands are clasped over his thighs, his ankles crossed, like whatever Bucky has to say will be no big deal. “So. What’s up, Snowflake?” It’s one of his nicknames for Winter, and Winter loves that Tony has special names for him.

Bucky’s sure he looks a little manic, but Winter sends an encouraging warmth through his chest, wraps a tendril hidden by Bucky’s sweatpants around his ankle in support, strokes softly above the bone. Bucky shakes his head and sighs. “Okay.”

Winter retreats to somewhere in his legs and Bucky glances at the closest camera.

“JARVIS,” Bucky says, “scan my shoulder again.”

A moment later, Tony and Bucky are looking at a side-by-side of Bucky’s shoulder immediately post-op and his shoulder now, about half an hour later.

“Well shit,” Tony says, starting to grin. “I thought you’d topped out the badass scale, but this? I was wrong. Holy shit. Even Cap’s serum doesn’t work this fast.”

Winter preens. His pleasure bleeds into a small grin on Bucky’s face. **I’m much better than a serum,** he says. **Tell him. Tell him I healed us.**

Bucky’s grin fades. “Nobody can know, Tony,” he says. “Nobody else knows—not even Steve. You can’t tell anyone we can do that.”

Tony raises his hands in surrender. “Then I won’t tell anyone. Not even to lord it over Cap that I know something about you he doesn’t.” Tony winks. His grin is disarming. “J, delete the second scan from all servers.”

“Done, Sir.”

The second scan vanishes.

Tony leans back against the hospital bed beside Bucky, who can tell Tony’s mind is already ablaze with questions and hypotheses and conclusions he’s kind enough not to sling at Bucky the way he usually approaches things that fascinate him. Instead, Tony says softly, carefully, “Did Hydra know you could do that?”

Winter wants him to answer. In for a penny… “Not at first. But when we got stronger—that’s when they figured out…”

**Tell him,** Winter insists with a mental nudge.

“Fuck you, I’m trying,” Bucky snaps, eyes sliding to the wall. “This ain’t as easy as it looks.” He scrabbles his hand through his hair and huffs, eyes returning to Tony. “Winter ain’t just a voice in my head,” he says in a rush. “The serum would’a taken a week to fix me. Winter did it in seconds.” He frowns, eyes losing focus as he snarls at Winter, ”There, happy now?”

**Yes. Now remove the bandages. They hinder our movement.** Winter reaches Bucky’s arm up and starts for him.

“Wait—stop! Let me do that, Jesus,” Tony says, batting Bucky’s hand away and taking over.

Winter lets him. _Whipped_ , Bucky thinks hard at him.

**What does that make _you?_** Winter snarks back, smug as shit.

“So what _is_ Winter, if you two don’t mind my asking?” Tony says as he clips and unwraps, thighs pressed against the hospital bed in the vee of Bucky’s legs.

His fingers are methodical and careful and gentle, the way they are when he tinkers with Bucky’s arm. It’s soothing, and Winter loves it. So does Bucky, not that he likes admitting it. The peace that steals over him whenever Tony works on him this way—as opposed to the lust that consumes him after he leaves and lets himself really experience how Tony’s proximity felt—is probably why Bucky actually answers his question. “Technically, he’s an alien parasite Hydra gave me. But—”

**I am _not_ a parasite!**

Bucky rolls his eyes. “You want me to tell him or not?”

Winter falls silent. Fuming, but silent.

“Thank you. He lives in me and could kill me, just like a parasite, but he won’t. Zola called him a Symbiote, said him and me have ’achieved symbiosis.’ Really, it just means we take care of each other. If it weren’t for Winter, I’d be dead a dozen times over by now.”

Tony’s fingers tense before he exhales a slow breath and relaxes them. He slides off the last bandage and drops the pile onto the empty half of the hospital bed. His right hand absently taps a spot in the center of his chest. The fingers of his left rest on Bucky’s knee.

Tony’s touch sends a frisson of heat through Bucky, though he tries to compartmentalize his reaction. He doesn’t want Tony to be uncomfortable around him. Tony still hasn’t removed himself from between Bucky’s legs—too busy thinking, perhaps—but Bucky won’t draw his attention to social decorum; he and Winter like Tony this close.

When Tony’s brown eyes snap to meet his, Bucky feels deliciously pinned, wholly seen in a heady and frightening way. It’s like Tony is trying to look through Bucky and into Winter, all his considerable focus aimed entirely at them.

“Winter sees what you see, hears what you hear, feels what you feel, the whole shebang, right?” Tony asks abruptly.

Bucky nods, not sure he can trust himself to speak with Tony watching so closely.

Tony’s hands cupping Bucky’s face are a surprise. Winter leans them into the calloused thumb stroking their cheek, his satisfaction a rumble in the back of Bucky’s head, one that strengthens when Tony smiles softly at Bucky’s reaction.

(They’re both suckers for gentleness, it’s embarrassing, and while Bucky tries to hide it, Tony figured that out their first week at the Tower, so now Steve isn’t the only person gifting Bucky with soft things. Bucky thinks he should feel more emasculated than he does. As it is, if Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, who arguably epitomize strength and masculinity and were so formidable Hydra feared them, seem to think Bucky—and Winter—craving softness is okay, then it’s probably fine. Probably.)

“Thanks for telling me,” Tony says, gaze snaring Bucky’s. “Now that we know, J and I can help keep Winter a secret. Any recordings suggesting Winter is anything more than a split personality will be run by you two for a deletion, modification, or archival verdict—got that, JARVIS?”

“Of course, Sir,” JARVIS says. “I will run a search of existing footage and prepare a compilation for Sergeant Barnes to view at his leisure.”

Bucky is surprised and touched. “Thanks,” he rasps, to both of them, and holds Tony’s wrist with tremulous fingers.

**I told you we could trust him.** Winter is going to be insufferably smug about this, and Bucky is _not_ looking forward to it. Still, he’s grateful Winter pushed the issue; he won’t tell Winter as much right now, but Winter can feel Bucky’s emotions—he probably already knows.

“Winter?” Tony says.

Winter perks up.

“I’m glad you’re looking out for Bucky.”

Bucky grins. “Yeah, me too.”

Winter preens at Tony’s words. **I will _always_ take care of us. Bucky is mine. And _you_ will be ours.**

Bucky flushes, irrationally afraid Tony could hear Winter even though the voice was solely in Bucky’s head.

Tony always seems to know when Winter is talking, and seems delighted by Bucky’s reaction. “You’re blushing! What did he say?”

**Kiss him.**

_My god, Winter, you’re not helping!_ Bucky thinks sharply. To Tony, he says, “He’s being a punk.”

**I am not. I am trying to get us what we want.**

“Seems like you’re _trying_ to get me in trouble,” Bucky grumbles.

“Is he now? How so?” Tony drops his hands to Bucky’s thighs, a familiar flirtatious grin curving his plush lips and warming his expression.

Bucky misses the more intimate touch, but at least Tony’s still close, still touching him. “I’m not gonna answer that. I’m pleadin’ the fifth.”

**Kiss him _now_.**

“Fifth doesn’t apply—if it’s Winter’s idea, you’re not incriminating yourself, you’re incriminating him.” Tony pauses. “Although spouses can’t be called to testify against each other. Roommates can though. Winter, are you a spouse or a roommate?”

**Spouse,** Winter says as Bucky tells Tony, “Roommate.”

Winter sounds offended. **We are _one_ , Bucky.**

Bucky rolls his eyes. “Fine, _spouse_ , happy now?”

**Thank you.**

“You’re welcome. _God_.”

**Now kiss him.**

Bucky sighs.

Tony looks amused. “I have to agree with Winter. You’ve got the ‘yes dear’ response down, that’s apparently a couples thing.”

**You are wasting time.**

“Winter’s definitely the pushy one in this relationship,” Bucky says pointedly.

Tony laughs. Bucky watches him helplessly.

That’s the last straw for Winter. **I’ll show you pushy,** he growls.

Bucky feels a cool ripple at the stump of his arm and suddenly realizes that he’s fucked. “Winter, we haven’t discussed this—”

**We’re done talking.**

Sinuous silver tendrils that look like liquid metal shoot out from the stump of Bucky’s arm and form an arm, a hand.

Tony is wide-eyed and open mouthed with shock. “Did Winter do that?” He is still as Winter’s hand explores his face, traces over his forehead and cheek and lips and nose as if all are equal. Tony lets him and doesn’t seem afraid or repulsed, more like curious and fascinated.

**I like him.**

“He likes you,” Bucky says.

“Yeah?” Tony’s smile crinkles his eyes, and it’s gorgeous. Bucky wants to taste it.

So of course that’s when Winter grips Tony by the back of the neck, reels him in, and mashes their lips together.

Bucky freezes, mortified.

But Tony returns his hands to Bucky’s face and steers their mouths into a real kiss—and Bucky relaxes.

Suddenly, everything’s perfect.

The bristled texture of Tony’s sharply manicured beard contrasts with the softness of his full lips, and Bucky loves it, surges closer and grips Tony’s shirt to keep him there. When Tony threads his fingers through the hair at the base of Bucky’s neck and grips him, Bucky sighs with pleasure. Tony licks the inseam of Bucky’s lips, slides his tongue inside, and Bucky moans. Distantly, he feels Winter’s pleasure reverberating through his own like a loud, satisfied purr.

Until today, Bucky hadn’t kissed anyone he actually wanted to since World War II, but he knows he’s good at it—and that Tony puts his skills to shame. Tony’s fingers are stroking and gripping, steering and teasing, and his tongue surveys Bucky’s mouth like he owns it. His chest is hard and electric against Bucky’s, and Bucky pulls Tony closer with his thighs and feels like he’s drowning, like Tony’s his anchor, like if he doesn’t hold on this kiss will shake him apart.

When Tony sucks on Bucky’s lower lip, nips gently, and releases him entirely, Bucky is actually breathing hard, and his eyes take a moment to open so he can see Tony’s face.

Tony’s cheeks are flushed, his lips glistening and red, and his half-lidded eyes smoldering and dilated.

Bucky wants him so bad. Lust is curling in his belly and tingling down his ass and thighs. He’s passively worried his dick is tenting his pants.

Tony strokes Bucky’s cheek. “Okay?” he asks.

**Yesssssss,** Winter hisses.

Bucky nods. It doesn’t occur to him to answer with words—half his brain is in his dick, and the other half’s prepped to follow.

“Good,” Tony says. He slides his thumb across Bucky’s lower lip as if mesmerized. “ _Fuck_ ,” he says eloquently. “Can I—”

“Anything,” Bucky says, and swallows Tony’s answering groan.

#

They have sex on the hospital bed. Not complicated or athletic sex, more groping and rutting, but Winter is an active participant, and all three enjoy themselves.

Now Bucky craves Tony more than ever.

Winter’s even worse.

Bucky hasn’t willingly had an orgasm with Winter riding him before, but the feedback loop of Bucky’s pleasure feeding Winter’s feeding Bucky’s was incredible, and Winter has no sense of moderation when it comes to things he enjoys—and he enjoys Bucky having sex with Tony almost as much as eating live humans until he’s full. Bucky and Tony are both fucked, or they will be if Winter gets his way, and Bucky knows it.

“Winter’s going to be insatiable now,” Bucky warns Tony, who’s sprawled half on top of him, face curled into Bucky’s neck. Tony’s hair is so soft Bucky can’t stop carding his fingers though it. Thankfully, Tony doesn’t seem to mind.

He laughs at Bucky’s warning. “Good,” he says, “that makes two of us.”

“You say that _now_ , but you don’t know what he’s like when he’s on a mission.”

Tony trails his fingers down Bucky’s chest. “I did my homework on the Winter Soldier when Steve asked to bring you to the Tower. Relentless as a Terminator and extremely effective—just like you. Sound about right?”

“Yup,” Bucky says.

**_We_ are the Winter Soldier,** Winter rumbles proudly.

“Great,” Tony says. “Well, I for one am fully on board with Winter’s mission to give me orgasms. I really hope you are too, though, otherwise things're gonna get awkward.”

Bucky chuckles and feels a tendril spool out from his side. Winter winds it around Tony’s back, tucking him impossibly closer. “Sex ain’t the mission, doll,” Bucky says when Winter prods him. “Not all of it.”

Tony hums curiously and props his chin on Bucky’s chest to look at his face. “Okay, I’ll bite. What’s the mission, if not solely to gift me with awesome sex?”

**Tony is _ours_ ,** Winter growls, possessive and hungry.

“You,” Bucky says fondly. “ _You_ are our mission.”

“Oh, ‘ _our’_ mission, is it?” Tony grins and kisses Bucky—soft, like a promise. “Then don’t let me stop you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed the story—and I hope you did—please let me know via kudos and comments! ^_^


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